Curry Surprise
by bluelily3
Summary: After a bad day, Kururu and Keronian Aki go out for curry. But it does not end well. Later on, they discover something.


"I've had the day from hell..."  
Aki's response would normally have been: "Do you wanna talk about it?" But that didn't work with Kururu. He never hashed out his day. And right now, this was the sort of relationship she needed. No words. No drama. Just this. What he gave her was different than anything she'd ever had. What he gave her was a connection. Just...being there. So she said:  
"Do you wanna go somewhere?" And his sunny yellow skin seemed to grow brighter.  
"Ku, ku! Yes. A thousand times, YES."

Since she'd turned into a Keronian before Keroro and Mois's wedding, she'd felt something for Kururu, and not once had she hid from it. He'd been shy at first, but he as he learned more of her, inside and out, he became comfortable with her. The two of them together were like that pair of worn shoes you found in a thrift store. They had once belonged to someone else, but the moment you slipped them on, they bonded with your feet, a lot of miles to walk left inside of them.  
They had technically been together for a month now, but neither of them were counting. The years in which they'd known each other was greater than that. But they didn't count that either. They just were. They went out a lot, exploring the wonders of space. And sometimes, they stayed in, finding entertainment in the great indoors. It didn't really matter where they were, or what they did. Aki still worked, and Kururu still worked. Between all that, they sought each other out. It was new for both of them, being so independent. But somehow, they found a way for it to work.

So, on a day like today, when one or both of them had had an especially demanding day, they went somewhere. Kururu had a portal in his lab, and he could set it for almost anywhere. Aki had been through with him once before, for a much more dangerous reason than "getting away". Since then, she had better learned the rules of portal travel.  
They stood by it, and Aki waited for Kururu to enter the coordinates for where they were going. Every once in awhile, she would have a suggestion of her own, but most of the time she let Kururu pick the place, since he knew so much more than she did.  
He paused, his hands suspended above the buttons.  
"Are you hungry?" He asked, offhand. The way he asked her was so casual, that he might have asked her what her shoe size was, or if an apple was red. Aki knew better. The very idea that he asked her about food at all meant that he was starving. Even if she told him she wasn't hungry at all, they would still go somewhere to eat, and he'd make up for it with drinks and hors d'oeuvres. Then he'd proceed to tell her what everything on the menu was (it was usually in a foreign language) and it would either make her hungry or grossed out. Both of which amused him. However, she'd only had a Power bar today, so the scenario would be different.  
"I'm starving." She answered.  
"Good." He nodded to himself and finished the setup. They were in and out of the portal without mishap. Lurking in front of Aki was the fifth or sixth Space Indian Restaurant he'd taken her to. She almost laughed out loud. It was a good thing she liked curry.

"You know..." Aki tapped her spoon on the table, then pointed it at Kururu.  
"You've never taken me to one of my favorite restaurants." Unflinching, he lifted another spoonful of curry to his mouth.  
"You've never asked."  
"Hmm. You've never asked either, Kuru-chan." Kururu made an annoyed noise, and Aki remembered that: (a., They had come here because he'd had a bad day, and (b., He was starving and she was talking to him about "relationship stuff" while he was eating...(c., his favorite food in the galaxy, curry. Mentally, she told herself to shut up and cast her eyes to her own plate. That only made her feel suddenly demure and servile, like a geisha. And that wasn't who she was. Apparently, Kururu didn't like her looking like that either. His voice made her look up at him.  
"Where would you go?" He sounded only slightly curious, and, bad day or not, Aki was going to make him work for it.  
"Guess." She smiled sweetly at him, inwardly enjoying this little game. His eyebrow cocked up at her, but he played along.  
"Eh...Something foreign." He sounded so confident, that Aki hid her hand behind her mouth and stifled a laugh.  
"I'm wrong? But...that seems so like you. Exotic, exciting...Damn..." He put his spoon down, perturbed that he didn't know her as well as he thought he did. If anything at all bothered him, it was getting an answer wrong.  
"That does make sense, Kuru, but...no. Guess again?"  
He continued to eat, now bored with the game.  
"I like seafood. Especially crab and lobster." She tried to smile, but he seemed disinterested. It was like he just wanted to finish eating and go home. After all this time of getting to know each other, they were finally having their first dull moment.  
"Seafood? That's boring. You're Japanese, and you like seafood. Too predictable." He said it in such a way that is struck a cord in Aki. She was suddenly caught in a memory of Haru. It was after she'd had Fuyuki and he'd stayed around for a few weeks. His eyes were glazed over like he was dead. Then, without explaining much, he was gone the next morning. He left a note telling her that it had been fun, but he needed to travel. He didn't like to be tied down, and he'd visit the children as often as he could. For no reason that she could think of, he'd lost interest in her. She gave him all she had ever given anyone. Her beauty, her attitude, her joy, everything. And he left her.

Now, after only a month of seeing each other, Kururu was shutting her down. He'd been so attentive before. She knew it wasn't natural for him to be stimulated by something for long, but... after such a short time...? Her stomach clenched, and she stood up quickly, almost knocking her chair over. Kururu looked up from his near-empty plate.  
"Eh?"  
"I have to...go to the ladies' room." She felt all the blood drain from her face and her stomach roiled. A rush of dizziness took over, and she clutched at the table to keep from falling over. In an instant, she couldn't stand being in this body any longer. She wanted to go somewhere and change into her normal form. She felt...unbalanced. She turned around and tried to walk away. But her legs felt like jelly, and she stumbled, falling on one knee. She heard the sound of a chair scraping the floor, and then felt Kururu's hand on her shoulder.  
"Ku...I thought you said curry didn't affect you."  
"It's...not the curry...I need to..." She swallowed.  
"Okay." Without further question, Kururu took her hand and guided her to the restroom. Once behind the door, she stood there for moment, wondering if he was listening. She looked in the mirror and was thinking that maybe a splash of water would make her feel better, when she felt her stomach heave again.

While she was washing her hands and face, she took several deep breaths. Where on earth had that come from? Sure, she'd had a memory of Haru leaving her, but was that really a reason to get insecure? Kururu already "felt" different than Haru. She knew he wouldn't leave. He was loyal, and she had more than one person to tell her that. Why should she let one dull moment affect her so much? So, Kururu had a bad day. He had a lot of those. He wasn't the cheeriest person in the world anyway. Why had she pushed him? And why...? She almost felt ashamed. It was not like her at all to react like this.  
The urge to change back was still strong, but it was overrun by something else. It also felt like it would be very wrong. Which made no sense at all. She had always changed back and forth with ease. What was different about that now? She was gathering up her strength to leave the restroom when the door creaked open. Slowly, Kururu peaked his face through.  
"Ku, ku! Any hot babes in here? Besides you, I mean..." He had meant it as a joke, and she tried to take it as one.  
"Oh, Kururu..." Her half-hearted smile tipped him off. He pushed the door open all the way and stepped inside. Even though he wasn't supposed to be in the ladies' room, he twisted the lock on the door.  
"You know, I like seafood too. It's okay to like seafood, Aki." His voice was dead serious, but Aki knew he was still joking with her. She laughed, but without warning, broke into tears. Kururu came closer to her, looking at her face.  
"Oh, oops. Wrong button...ku, ku..." Then he pressed his forehead against hers and kept silent. They stayed like that for what seemed a long time. Whenever Kururu ran out of jokes to lighten the situation, he turned physical with her. She felt his fingers in her hair, and his lips lightly brushed hers. She almost recoiled, since she'd just been sick, but he didn't seem to care. Her kissed her until she started to feel the warmth in his face again. When he broke away, she was smiling.  
"Better?" He smiled back at her. She nodded.  
"Wanna go home?" She nodded again.  
"Okay. But first you have to pay the bill. I left my wallet in my other pants. Ku, ku!" She smiled again. He was back to the jokes. On their way out, he waved at the cook from the backroom, then pressed his thumb print onto a screen. He had an ongoing tab here.

Later that night, they relaxed on her bed after a slow session of lovemaking. Aki was drifting off to sleep, her cheek resting on Kururu's belly spiral. It was her favorite pillow. He touched her hair, waking her.  
"Aki." He whispered. She blinked.  
"Hm?"  
"How long have you been in your Keronian form?" He whispered. His voice was soft, but firm. The question was a random one, but held it weight.  
"Uh...about a week. Why?" She'd done her work from home the last few days, enjoying her new body.  
"Well...I may need to check something before you change back." Aki was confused and sleepy.  
"Wha...?"  
"Was today the first time you were sick like that?"  
"Kuru-chan...I'm really tired..."  
"It's important, Aki." The urgency in his voice made her sit up and stare at him in the dark.  
"But, why? Tell me what's going on, Kururu."  
"Okay, but don't freak out or anything." He said this slowly, carefully. Aki was silent.  
"You might be pregnant." The air in the room grew close, and she heard a buzzing in her ears. Pregnant? With what? A Keronian baby? An egg? How did it work with them? Did they even carry babies like humans did? And for how long? In the darkness, Kururu rummaged around for something. He had a remote in one of the drawers next to her bed. Aki guessed it was one he took with him everywhere. He switched a lamp on and his face was bent towards her belly. He held the remote over it. There was only a second or two, then he was nodded.  
"Yep. Ku, ku! There's a little Kuru-baby in there..."  
"What?" She could feel her eyes getting wide. They must be bulging out of her head.  
"Kururu! I'm pregnant? But...how?" At this, he laughed.  
"You should really know better than that, Aki! Breeding with an alien species! Ku, ku, ku!" His voice was loud, as if he were bragging. He wasn't annoyed that she was pregnant at all! He was proud. Like the whole thing had been his idea.  
"Breeding? Wait a second. That is not what we have been doing!"  
"Aki...that's not...ku! Pregnant..." He laughed some more, and Aki stood up from the bed.  
"This isn't really very funny. I didn't even think...how could I have been so stupid! I can't have an alien baby!"  
"Of course you can, Aki." He saw that she was leaving, and his voice was quiet again.  
"Come here and sit down...It's okay, really." Aki took a deep breath. Maybe having a Keronian baby WOULD be okay. Different...but she liked that, right? She sat down and Kururu came up behind her. His hands went to her belly.  
"Okay. I'll tell you how it works. Will that help calm you down?" She nodded.  
"Keronians get pregnant, but not like mammals. They lay eggs."  
"I'm going to lay eggs? Like a chicken?"  
"Ku! No silly, more like... a frog. Only not multiple eggs. There's only one in there. Most of the time there is."  
"Most of the time?"  
"Well, Keronians can get pregnant with anywhere from one to four eggs at a time."  
"Four?!"  
"Don't worry...I have lazy swimmers. You'll never have four with me. Ku, ku!"  
"So, there's an egg in there? What about the baby?"  
"It's in the egg. And we call them tadpoles. Or, if you really insist on calling it something cute, 'taddy' would work." Aki cracked a smile at that.  
"Kuru-chan..." She chuckled.  
"The egg is about three days old."  
"Only three?"  
"Well, that's not so short. You only have a week and a half left."  
"Kururu! I'm having a baby in...a week and a half?!"  
"A tadpole, ku, ku..." She ignored his correction.  
"But, how will it come out?"  
"The way all babies come out. Keronians have much easier births, though. No pain. You'll just lay it in the tank."  
"The tank?!"  
"Shh...Aki..." He laughed softly. "It's no big thing. We have 'laying tanks'. There is a chair in it with a hole. You just sit there, lay the egg, and it falls in the water. It's not bigger than a fish tank. Then, the tadpole eats its way out of the egg and..."  
"Kuru, please...stop for a second." Aki was getting dizzy again. He explained everything so scientifically, and it was hard to deal with right now. He was silent for a moment, letting her digest it.  
"Ku...you said it would help if I explained it..."  
"I know I did. But...this is so much..." She leaned against him, and he rubbed his hands over her stomach. She heard a slight humming sound from him. She knew his mind was working. He was excited.  
"So...you're happy about this, aren't you?" She asked. He was quiet, then he answered her.  
"I kind of am, actually. I never made a tadpole before. It's like a new creation. And it's part me, and part you. What could go wrong? Ku, ku!"  
"Just as long as you don't do science experiments on it."  
"Tch...Aki. You know me better than that..."  
"Okay, so...after it eats the egg...?"  
"Well, then it swims around in the tank for a day or two, developing. It grows arms and leg stumps, and when they turn into moveable limbs, it starts jumping."  
"Jumping?"  
"Yep. And it jumps right out of the tank."  
"What? Isn't that dangerous?"  
"Not really. They just bounce. But usually the parents are there anyway to help it out. Then...you slap a diaper on the kid, and it's ready to crawl around the house, causing mischief. Ku, ku!"  
"All in a matter of days?"  
"That's the way it works. After a tadpole learns to walk and talk, it's growth slows down much more. The childhood phase is shorter, but the pre-teen phase lasts for years and years. Some even get stunted, like Tama-chan." At the look on her face, he smiled.  
"But that doesn't happen very often. Pretty rare." The room was quiet as Aki took it all in. Then Kururu yawned.  
"So...any other questions?"  
"Well...not right now. I guess. I don't know."  
"Ku...I'm getting tired. If you think of anything else, just ask me when I'm conscious again, alright?" Kururu rolled over in bed and curled up. It took Aki much longer than that to fall asleep. To the sound of Kururu's nighttime mumbling, she lay there thinking about it. She was going to have Kururu's "taddie". The more she thought about, the less panicky she felt. A sudden warmth grew over her. A cute little Keronian baby. And Kururu would be a father. That would be very amusing to watch...


End file.
